About RSS and how it's changing the web.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

About RSS and how it's changing the web.

RSS. You may have heard of it, maybe not. Either way, if you do any kind of serious blog of news reading (OK even if you only read 4 or so blogs) you should definitely use RSS.

This post is about what RSS is. Tomorrow I'll post about how to use it.

Here's how what some sites say RSS is.

Whatisrss.com says:
"RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo News."

Feedburner.com says:
"Technology evolution in online publishing has made it really easy to not only publish regular updates to web-based content, but also keep track of a large number of your favorite Web sites or blogs, without having to remember to check each site manually or clutter your email Inbox. You can now streamline your online experience by subscribing to specific content feeds and aggregating this information in one place to be read when you're ready.

Consumer Bottom Line: Subscribing to feeds makes it possible to review a large amount of online content in a very short time.
Publisher Bottom Line: Feeds permit instant distribution of content and the ability to make it "subscribable."
Advertiser Bottom Line: Advertising in feeds overcomes many of the shortcomings that traditional marketing channels encounter including spam filters, delayed distribution, search engine rankings and general “in-box” noise."

Here's a video about RSS and how to use it, "RSS in plain English."

VideoJug: RSS In Plain English

RSS stands for "really simple syndacation".

RSS is often called a feed or news feed.

The some of the standard icons for RSS looks like this: